false 1 7 3 true 5719629 read 2 true 3911606 currently-reading 2 true 3911605 to-read 2 false 4327176 oo-programming 1 false 3911650 csharp 1 false 4327238 running 1 false 3916210 classics http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/51492133 Raising Freethinkers: A Practical Guide for Parenting Beyond Belief (Paperback) by Dale MacGowan
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45047220 to: Daniels' Running Formula (Paperback) by Jack Daniels
bookshelves: running
If you are like me and have a technical mind and want to apply it to running then you might enjoy this book. Even if you are only a beginning runner but you want find the best research based information then check it out.

I'm currently following the lowest level plan in the book, the White plan. After 5 weeks into the plan I think I'm better off than had I just "gone out and run for 3 miles" like I used to. It's a more conservative book but hopefully more sustainable in the long run. Daniels constantly warns of unsustainable training programs and how over training just leads to more injury and ultimately slower times.

The only drawback to the book is that Daniels spends a lot of time focusing on competitive runners and their training needs. I believe the book contains enough information for a beginner runner who hopes to become more competitive however.

I'd recommend the book but only to certain people. I've read this book multiple times as I use it constantly as a reference during my training.





]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45048778 UML Distilled: A Brief Guide to the Standard Object Modeling Language, Third Edition (Paperback) by Martin Fowler
bookshelves: currently-reading, oo-programming
Apparently UML isn't some crazy beast I thought it was. I picked it up off a friends desk and it was obvious that I needed to add UML to my toolkit to help with design and communication of design. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45047158 Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design: A Brain Friendly Guide to OOA&D (Head First) by Brett D. McLaughlin
bookshelves: to-read
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/45045281 to: Head First Design Patterns (Head First) by Elisabeth Freeman
bookshelves: oo-programming
First, this is another Design Patterns book which attempts to cast a new light on a subset of the original GOF design patterns book, Design Patterns Elements of Reusable Object-Oriented Software.
Although I never read the original book, I looked at it enough times to know that it would be a difficult read. That book might be better as a reference after you've read the Head First book.

What I really like about this book is the emphasis on helping the reader to learn and understand the material. Head First Labs puts serious thought into how people learn and they apply their knowledge to existing topics like Design Patterns.

Most of the code examples were in JAVA but they are simple enough to translate to C# without any trouble. There are a few design patterns, such as the iterator pattern that can be accomplished in C# in a better way. So learn the concepts but expect to apply them in C# differently.

I'm looking into other books in the Head First line:
Head First Object-Oriented Analysis and Design A Brain Friendly Guide to OOA&D ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39517548 to: The Great Gatsby (Paperback) by F. Scott Fitzgerald
bookshelves: classics
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/39454940 to: C# in Depth: What you need to master C# 2 and 3 (Paperback) by Jon Skeet
bookshelves: csharp, currently-reading
Jon Skeet is passionate about his craft. In discussing his "relationship with C#" he makes a potentially dry topic easy to read. It's obvious that he speaks from practical experience rather than a purely academic one.

I've found the information thus far to be a good review of C# 1.2 and 2.0 features. He can be a bit wordy on seemingly simple topics such as Nullable Types while light on example code. Despite mentioning this, I personally enjoy this approach but it is different from other technical books.

I'm closing in on the heart of what I wanted from the book which is what's new in C# 3.0 and why should I care?

The best part of the book is that it focuses on the C# language rather than the .net framework or the CLR. ]]>